State-owned sugar companies have halted their customary annual contracts with sugar beet farmers to buy the next season’s crop after securing a deal to source sugar beet from 100,000 feddans (42,000 hectares) through the currently military-affiliated Mostaqbal Misr (Future of Egypt) for Sustainable Development Authority, two sources familiar with the sugar industry told Al Manassa.
The halt to contracts comes just weeks before the start of the sugar beet planting season, creating uncertainty among farmers over plans for the coming season. Companies normally complete most of their contracts by mid-July, weeks before planting begins.
Mostafa Abdel-Gawad, head of the Sugar Crops Council at the Ministry of Agriculture, told Al Manassa that the sugar beet planting season begins in mid-August and sugar companies usually contract enough farmers to cover 60% to 70% of the planned planting area by mid-July.
He said more than 700,000 feddans were planted last season, and companies should already have completed a large share of their contracts. “But as of today, no new contracts have been signed, and no instructions have been issued to begin contracting,” he said.
Abdel-Gawad said that in previous years, companies signed contracts for the new season while farmers were delivering the current season’s crop, so they could plan early for the following season.
Sugar beet cultivation requires preparations two to three months before planting, including securing seeds and production inputs and arranging crop rotation, he added.
He said the continued absence of contracts has left farmers uncertain because there is still no clear plan for how much land will be planted or which factories will receive the crop next season.
Salah Fathy, chairman of the Ministry of Supply’s Sugar and Integrated Industries Company, told Al Manassa last October that the company planned, for the first time, to take delivery of sugar beet from 100,000 feddans managed by the Mostaqbal Misr during the 2026 season, equivalent to about 2.4 million tons of beet, enough to produce roughly 400,000 tons of sugar.
Hassan El-Fendi, former head of the Sugar Division at the Federation of Egyptian Industries, attributed the slowdown in contracting to falling domestic sugar prices, which have dropped from about 27,000 Egyptian pounds ($530) per metric ton to around 22,000 pounds ($440) amid ample supply and weak demand, reducing companies’ liquidity and limiting their ability to sign early contracts with farmers.
El-Fendi told Al Manassa that competition from imported sugar is adding further pressure on local companies. Imported sugar costs no more than 20,000 pounds ($400) per metric ton, while domestic production costs range between 26,000 and 27,000 pounds ($510–$530) per metric ton.
Despite weak prices, Egypt’s sugar production rose 34% in the season ending in August 2025 to 2.964 million tons from 2.215 million tons a year earlier, according to Al Arabiya, driven largely by expanded sugar beet cultivation.
The government also cut the sugar beet procurement price by 16% last August to 2,000 pounds ($40) per metric ton. At the time, one source told Al Manassa the move was intended to encourage farmers to switch to wheat cultivation and increase wheat production.
The Mostaqbal Misr for Sustainable Development Agency first emerged publicly in May 2022 when President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi inaugurated the Mostaqbal Misr sustainable agriculture project as the cornerstone of an 800,000-feddan land reclamation project in the New Delta region.
On Tuesday, the House of Representatives cleared a state-sponsored draft law regulating the Future of Egypt Authority, forwarding it to President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for his final signature.
Under the new regulations, the authority will assume duties currently managed by other ministries, but will answer directly to the president.
